Renault release first sound recording of V6 Turbo

Renault Sport F1 have today released the first sound recording of a 2014 Formula One engine. Although it gives an indication, the engine is clearly short short shifted and not pushed to prevent giving away too much details to its competing engine suppliers.

Renault's engine is dubbed "Energy F1-2014", leaving behind the RS naming scheme that its F1 engines had thus far. Previously the company already released a number of details, but the sound recording is a first.

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Rob White, deputy managing director at Renault Sport F1 noted: ‘‘The sound of the engine is the sum of three principal components, exhaust, intake and mechanical noise. On fired engines, exhaust noise dominates, but the other two sources are not trivial and would be loud if the exhaust noise was suppressed and contribute to the perceived sound of the engines in the car.

‘‘All three sources are still present on the V6. At the outset, there is more energy in each combustion event but there are fewer cylinders turning at lower speed and both intake and exhaust noise are attenuated by the turbo. Overall, the sound pressure level (so the perceived volume) is lower and the nature of the sound reflects the new architecture.

‘‘The car will still accelerate and decelerate rapidly, with instant gearshifts. The engines remain high revving, ultra high output competition engines. Fundamentally the engine noise will still be loud. It will wake you from sleep, and circuit neighbours will still complain. The engine noise is just a turbocharged noise rather than a normally aspirated noise: you can just hear the turbo when the driver lifts off the throttle and the engine speed drops."

‘‘I am sure some people will be nostalgic for the sound of engines from previous eras, including the preceding V8, but the sound of the new generation Power Units is just different. It’s like asking whether you like Motorhead or AC/DC. Ultimately it is a matter of personal taste. Both in concert are still pretty loud.’’